Sleep in the City: Sweet Dreams for Kids

A non-profit organization in Detroit is educating at-risk children about sleep. It’s also giving them resources to make their sleep environment more comfortable.

Sweet Dreamzzz Inc. partnered with the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research to develop the R.E.M. (Rest. Educate. Motivate.) Sleep Program.

The interactive program involves hands-on activities, games and songs. Trained volunteers go into local schools to teach children about the benefits of healthy sleep habits and a bedtime routine.

The goal is to help the children get a good night’s sleep in preparation for classroom learning. But sleep can be a challenge for children in Detroit’s most impoverished communities. Many children in the city may not have a warm, comfortable place to sleep at night.

In April the Children’s Health Fund reported that nearly half of Detroit children live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level. Detroit’s poverty rate of 33.8 percent is the highest of any large U.S. city.

So Sweet Dreamzzz also provides the kids with a sleep kit. It contains a sleeping bag, nightshirt, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, stuffed animal and other bedtime items. So far the group has given a kit to more than 25,500 children.

Program director Josephine Long recently told the Detroit Free Press that too many children get too little sleep. Ongoing sleep loss puts them at risk for both learning problems and health problems.

"We're not saying sleep is the answer, but it is the core," she said.

Earlier this year the Sleep Education Blog reported that long-lasting sleep problems in children can affect their cognitive development. Living in a “fragile family” also can affect how children sleep.

Learn more about sleep and children.

Who Sleeps Better?

A study being presented today at SLEEP 2009 in Seattle, Wash., examined sleep complaints in the U.S. Results show major differences based on marital status, income, employment and education.

The study examined CDC data involving 159,856 people. They were asked how often they had trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or sleeping too much. “Sleep disturbance” was defined as seven or more days of sleep problems over the last two weeks.

Results indicate that about 19 percent of Americans had disturbed sleep. What were the most important factors?

One was marital status. Almost 31 percent of people who were “separated” and 21 percent of people who had never been married had disturbed sleep; only about 16 percent of married people had trouble sleeping.

Another factor was income. About 26 percent of people who made less than $10,000 per year had disturbed sleep. This rate dropped as income increased; only about 8 percent of people making $75,000 or more had trouble sleeping.

There also were dramatic differences based on employment status. Almost 52 percent of people who were unable to work had disturbed sleep; nearly 32 percent of people who had been unemployed less than a year had trouble sleeping. Only about 16 percent of workers and 17 percent of retired people were sleep disturbed.

Trouble sleeping also decreased with education level. More than 27 percent of people who didn’t finish high school had disturbed sleep; this figure dropped to less than 14 percent for people with a college degree.

Race had less of an effect on sleep. Sleep disturbance occurred in about 19 percent of whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians. But almost 27 percent of people who are multiracial reported having disturbed sleep.